Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Evaluating Phil Hughes

Phil Hughes took the mound on Friday at Camden Yards and showed improvement over his previous two starts – Joe Girardi called it a “stepping stone” – but the end result was the same, a Yankees loss.

To be clear, he has not looked terrific this year. The Hughes we saw on May 1 at Texas and in Game 3 of the AL Division Series has not yet appeared, and that’s the thing with young pitchers — consistency.

Then again, Hughes’ performance wasn’t nearly as ugly as the 8-2 final. After all, he did take a 1-1 tie into the sixth inning before the Birds battered him for five runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. Here’s the thing fans will have to remember — this is going to be a “season of transition” for the Yankees, as Hank Steinbrenner warned months ago, and the kids are going to have growing pains like these.

Hughes is 21 and, though his demeanor doesn’t always tell you that, the results are going to. The Yankees believe that Hughes is best served to learn at the big league level instead of whittling through Triple-A lineups, and they’re going to continue to give him the chance to prove himself on the job.

So much for the Yanks being in great shape, Now it’s Arod, Going down one at a time Petitte, Posada, Molina, Jeter. now Alex. I hope thats it!. We finally have a lead 4-0, Jobe doesn’t appear to be ready 2 batters, 2 his 0 outs and the rains halt the game. Andy was great today. It appears they are ready to gey going again, HOLD THEM…….Joba out…Bruney In..
“GO YANKEES”

Watchinh MLB on a daily basis and regularly watching The leading off program I found John Marzano to be almost one of the family his knowledge and insight of the game combined with his home and rapport with Vinni Marcucci was contagious. Having learnt of his sudden death today Monday morning I am deeply shocked and saddened and I pass on all of my best wishes at this sad time to all of his colleagues associated with the programme.

I’m sure it all WILL come together eventually – and it’s definitely a better start than 2007. Still, it’s getting harder and harder to watch these games – no one even looks like they’re trying (with a few exceptions of course). It’s just pathetic – I don’t feel like there’s ONE team out there I’d be happy to watch the Yanks play so far – I feel like they are gonna get beat at every turn – and no confidence that runs will be scored at all. There are too many holes in the line-up so that even when someone actually GETS on base – a hole (i.e. Cano, Giambi) comes up and the baserunner is wasted. UGH!

It appears apparent that the pitching like all pitching needs offensive support to instill in them the confidence to go after batters, seems as though we are seeing a lot of pitchers getting to 0-2 then suddenly it is 3-2 and a bad pitch is thrown. They need the confidence in being able to go after hitters with two strikes and for this they need offensive support. This is really lacking at present. I still have confidence in it coming all said it is a far better start than 2007.

I think these Mussina quotes are kind of funny. I mean Moose really was one of the elite pitchers of his generation. Just because he’s not really good anymore doesn’t mean he doesn’t know HOW to be good. Most pitchers tend to struggle when they’re barely old enough to drink. What’s going to happen is both pitchers are going to go out one of these days and pitch a great game and everyone will be like “Wow! That’s the future of our franchise! Take that Santana!” Then they’ll throw another stinker and it’ll be all back to this again.

I’m tired of 500..bal.
Here’s a though, all I heard this off-season is how Moose was a mentor for these young pitchers. Maybe new Joe need to keep him away from mentoring them so they can start pitching and not leasing to a guy (Moose) who can’t pitch to Manny.
Frankygg27

Also, I think it’s time to move Damon out of the leadoff spot for now. I feel bad for Girardi. I mean usually there’s only one guy hitting as badly as Cano, Giambi, and Damon are. He’s gotta be very clever to get this offense going.

I agree. I think the “Moose” approach works every once in a while, but they do have to learn to trust their stuff. I mean I think their pitching has more to do with inexperience than it does talking to Moose. They actually could learn a lot from him because he USED to throw like they did (especially Hughes). They just gotta learn that giving up a few solo home runs is better than walking three guys on and giving up a double. I’m anxious to see what adjustments they make. THAT’S what’ll tell me what I need to know about these pitchers.

I am all for the youth movement but I am losing some of my previous positivity. Hughes and kennedy seem to be taking the Mussina way of pitching. Pitch from behind and pick rather then pitch. These guys have good stuff but they do not trust it or think they can do what they want. I am tired of them shaking off pitches!!!! They are children that need to listen to the vet catchers!! Girardi needs to walk in the lockeroom and tell them they are going down to AAA. See if that lights a fire under them.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.